Google Earth: Just too much fun!

I have been using Google Earth in the classroom for a little over three years now. FOr someone who loves geography, this is an application that is pure trouble. As I begin planning my lesson, I find myself off exploring things that have nothing to do with the lesson I am planning to teach. Often I see something that leads to another interesting point. Before I realize it, hours have slipped by and I am still playing. Its as much fun to check out places you have been as it is to look at places you have never seen. I have literally spent hours arguing with other teachers about when the last time the school was scanned based on lines in the parking lot and which cars were or were not in the lot at the time.
Bringing the lesson to life in the classroom with students is just as distracting. I have learned that it is best to always plan a Google Earth play day before using the tool for the first time in a lesson. Once students see the maps projected onto the whiteboard, the fun begins. I always start in space and fly into our school. As I rotate the perspective so that the view is into our class window.... I can always count on at least half of the class turning to see if the camera is hanging in the air outside. They know its not, but they can not help looking. Soon after that come the inevitable requests to see their houses. So students take turns coming up to put in their addresses and watch the view fly to their houses to.
Eventually we get to the planned lesson. And their are so many that Google Earth can support. In my classes we have checked out rollercoasters and amusement parks for our science lessons on motion or gone to see places described in books we were reading. This is one application that is only limited by the imagination of the user. But be careful. Its so much fun that everyone might forget that they are learning.